The present invention relates to a tool for handling a striking screw wherein the screw is axially driven into a material to handled until it reaches a predetermined depth, and thereafter, it is rotatably driven.
Generally, a striking screw is first axially struck or hammered into a material to be handled until it reaches a predetermined depth, and thereafter, it is rotatably driven, or screwed, further into the material. Such a striking screw has two advantages, one of them being that it can be hammered quickly into a material to be handled like a nail, and the other being that it is securely driven into the material. A conventional tool for handling a striking screw of the foregoing type is constructed such that a striking screw fed from a magazine into a shooting portion is first hammered by actuating a driver. Thereafter, it is fitted at the foremost end of the shooting portion into a socket having a polygonal hole formed therein. It is then rotatably driven in the material to be handled by rotating the socket. With this construction, the conventional tool can be used only with a screw having an enlarged head portion corresponding to the contour of a socket portion. For this reason, the conventional tool cannot be used with a screw having an engagement groove or an standard engagement hole such as a plus character-shaped groove (a "Phillips"-type groove), a minus character-shaped groove, a hexagonal hole, or the like formed on the surface of a circular head portion thereof. Similarly, the conventional tool can not be used for a screw to be driven into gypsum board or a similar material This is because when a screw having a polygonal head portion is used for the gypsum board, a paper backing placed on the surface of the gypsum board is broken or torn by the polygonal head portion or by the corners of a socket portion of the screw so that the gypsum board fails to be retained by the head portion of the screw. This makes the joint strength of the gypsum board undesirably low.
With this in mind, it is difficult to tighten the screw without leaving the head portion protruding from the surface of the gypsum board when it is rotatably driven into the gypsum board.